Phoenix DUI Cases - Part II - Pretrial Procedure

Phoenix DUI lawyers who practice regularly in Phoenix Municipal Court understand that knowing the system and how the court works goes a long way towards securing drunk driving clients the best possible result. A misdemeanor DUI case charged in the City Court in Phoenix starts with an arraignment, which is the first court date after arrest, assuming that the defendant was not held in custody.

At the start, let me disavow readers of the notion that a release by the Phoenix Police Department with a promise to appear at arraignment means that the police aren't taking the DUI case seriously. Trust me, they usually are. It is the exception, and not the rule, that people are booked into jail and held overnight after a Phoenix DUI arrest. The exceptions are when there are warrants for other crimes outstanding, when the person is obviously a flight risk, and when the DUI is a felony. So if you talk with a friend or an attorney who tells you that your release was a good sign, politely thank them and realize that they do not know what they are talking about.

The arraignment is mandatory for persons not represented by a private DUI lawyer. For those who have secured a DUI attorney prior to the arraignment date, they need not appear because the attorney can waive their presence. This saves both the lawyer and client a lot of time.

The next hearing is called a pretrial conference or pretrial disposition conference. There may be just one of these hearings, or there may be several. Most Phoenix judges will allow private DUI attorneys to waive their client's presence at these hearings as well. The purpose of the pretrial conference is to negotiate with the prosecutor, take care of any logistics such as the production of documents, and to enter into a DUI plea bargain if one can be reached.

Now here's a secret that most people don't know about DUI cases in Phoenix, and that some attorneys either don't know or are not willing to share. The Phoenix Prosecutor's office will not plea bargain a DUI case down to a non-DUI. For example, they will not reduce a DUI to a reckless driving. This is true even if there is a borderline chemical test result. While the State sometimes dismisses DUI cases, the typical DUI case in Phoenix Municipal Court will require either a plea of guilty to DUI or a trial. My opinion is that if an attorney tells a client that they can try to negotiate the case down to a non-DUI for them, in most cases that promise should be prefaced by the fact that there is little to no chance of that happening. In a nutshell, the City of Phoenix will dismiss DUI cases if appropriate, but they typically will not plea bargain them down.

Because of this, we always tell potential clients who come to our office who are charged in Phoenix Municipal court that the only real reason to retain a private attorney is if they are serious about contesting the charges, most likely through litigation, potentially all the way through a jury trial. Sometimes a client just wants their hand held through the process, and we are happy to do that, but only after giving them all of the facts. If a potential client with a typical case wants the case dismissed or reduced to a reckless driving without a trial, and if they insist that another law firm has given them information that led them to believe that is a possibility, we politely tell that potential client to go elsewhere because we will not start the attorney-client relationship under false pretenses or with unrealistic expectations.

Assuming that there is nothing that goes wrong with the forensic evidence in the case, and assuming that the defendant does not opt to plead guilty, then eventually, at a pretrial conference, the case gets set for trial. Once the DUI case is set for trial, a trial date conference is scheduled. This is a preset time when the defense attorney calls the court and advises the court of good and bad dates for the trial, which should take into consideration the availability of the attorney, the client, and the witnesses the defense intends to present. The State also provides its good and bad dates, and the court tries to pick the best day for all involved.

Once a trial date is selected, there are essentially three different options for the trial date (assuming a jury trial, which is the most common in DUI cases):

1) Date Certain: This means that the case will definitely be heard on the scheduled date, and is usually used for out of town witnesses or defendants.

2) Off Standby: This means that the case will most likely be heard on the scheduled date, and the parties are to report to the presiding courtroom by 8:30am on the morning of the scheduled trial.

3) On Standby: This means that the case may or may not be heard on the scheduled date, and the parties are to be within phone range and within a one hour drive from the court. When a court becomes available, the parties are called and told to come down to the court. In the event the case is not called on the designated date, the parties are typically given either the option to ride the calendar (which means try again the next day) or continue the case to another preset date.

The subject of how a jury trial is conducted in a Phoenix DUI case will be left for a future article on Phoenix DUI process. DUI is a highly specialized area of criminal defense and therefore, the reader should not always apply the conventional wisdom from other criminal cases to DUI cases.